Nehru’s political awakening happened when he learned about Annie Besant’s arrest in 1917. He subsequently joined the All India Home Rule League. In 1919, shortly after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre — in which 379 Indians were killed and more than 1000 injured — Nehru overheard the unrepentant orchestrator British Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer gloat about it while on a train. This outraged him further and he vowed to resolutely fight for India’s independence.

During India’s freedom movement, Pandit Nehru was imprisoned 9 times. He was jailed by the British for a total of 3,259 days which is close to 9 years of his life spent behind the bars. Pandit Nehru penned an autobiography ‘Toward Freedom’ when he was in jail.